Dreher calls an exchange between Couric and Palin about the proximity of Alaska to Russia and how that plays into Palin's foreign policy qualifications "a train wreck".

Palin told Couric during that exchange: "We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state."

To be fair, many of the readers commenting on Dreher's post disagree with his column.

Douthat jokes that he is quoting his own inner monologue, while watching the Couric interview.

"And that, Douthat, is why nobody's ever going to hire you to help pick their running mate," he writes.

Asked to respond to some of the criticism, Tucker Eskew, senior advisor to Governor Palin, says the full interviews of Palin with Couric and Fox's Sean Hannity and ABC's Charles Gibson speak to Palin's abilities.

Palin will be interviewed by Couric again next week but there are no other plans for more interviews as of yet.

The campaign believes Palin comes off in her interviews as "confident" and someone who "speaks like Americans speak", according to spokeswoman Maria Comella.

Eskew won't "dignify with a response" Parker's assertion that Palin should drop out of the race.

He says Palin is used to being dismissed by critics and underestimated.

And both Eskew and Comella say Palin is forging ahead with debate preparations on Friday in Philadelphia.

Campaign officials are convinced Palin has created a new energy for McCain's campaign.

Kathleen Parker—the columnist now calling on Palin to drop out-- said she had originally been "pulling for Palin."

Indeed, on September 3 Kathleen Parker wrote that Palin's candidacy "has cast a bright light on the limitations of our old ideological templates." And on September 10 she wrote that McCain's "political judgment in selecting the Alaska governor was keen."

But a review of her columns shows she has not always offered high praise for the Governor.

On September 19, Parker wrote: "I worry. Was she the most qualified person in McCain’s field of running mates? Clearly not."